Hippocratic oath forgotten, docs busy fleecing patients

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, October 22

There is a surge in the number of dengue and chikungunya patients in the city and private medical practitioners it seems are making the most of it.

In the absence of any specific treatment available for dengue and chikungunya, residents are being fleeced by medical practitioners, who not only claim to give specific medicines to patients, but injections as well.

Forgetting their Hippocratic oath, they are busy looting people and prescribing those medicines and injections that are not even required.

Mamta, a resident of Deep Nagar, said she was suffering from chikungunya a few weeks ago. She went to a nearby doctor for treatment.

“The doctor gave me three tablets and I used to get injections everyday for a week. One injection cost me Rs 200. The doctor asked me to get injections for treating chikungnya,” she said.

She said the medicines were given by doctors from his pharmacy and were without any label so she did not know its name. Not only this, the injections that he administered were also from his pharmacy and he never prescribed them on the slip.

Another city resident while narrating his tale of woes said his son was suffering from chikungnya and after taking the medicine for the same he developed pimples and boils over his face. “When I took him to the hospital, the doctor told me that my son has probably been given steroids by the doctor, which my son was unable to bear,” he said.

Another ignorant city resident Raghav said he was suffering from chikungunya as his platelet count had come done to two lakhs. “The doctor asked me to get injections for a week to get relief from joint pains,” he said.

“It is very sad that private practitioners are looting patients and giving them medicines and injections which are not even required during dengue and chikungunya. The department has time and again been telling people that there is no specific treatment or vaccine or injection available for dengue or chikungunya. One has to keep the body temperature down by taking paracetamol and if the temperature increases, then cold sponge should be done. It is only in the extreme cases when the platelet count comes down that blood platelets are given. Doctors are probably giving injections for giving strength, but these are not required at all,” said Dr Ramesh, District Epidemiologist.

Both dengue and chikungunya are viral fever and the only difference between both is that in chikungunya there are severe joint pains, while in dengue there are body pains and the joint pains are not too severe.

In dengue, blood platelets come down and in chikungunya, blood platletes do come down but not so drastically, said Dr Ramesh.

He said people should come forward and register their complaint to the department with proofs such as receipts or prescription slips so that action could be taken against defaulters.